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For China, Relief After a Successful Trip

BEIJING — As President Hu Jintao completed his groundbreaking trip to the United States, the sense of relief here over how well it went was almost palpable.

Unlike Mr. Hu’s previous trip five years ago, when he was not accorded full honors and a series of gaffes marred the visit, this one seems to have gone exactly according to script — which is how Beijing likes largely ceremonial events like state visits. There was a 21-gun salute, a gala dinner, and a live news conference that went about as well as could be expected for the press-shy Mr. Hu. Business deals were signed, a small child was hugged, and a major speech was delivered.

From China’s point of view, the trip was intended to do two things. The first was to show Mr. Hu being accorded the respect he is due as head of a powerful country. That was the Washington part of the trip, with all of its pomp and circumstance.

It was also meant to highlight China’s soft power by having Mr. Hu visit Chicago and inspect a Chinese company — to show that China is not just the world’s factory but an investor and job creator itself overseas. Also on the agenda was a visit to a Confucius Institute, one of the country’s new chain of cultural centers that Beijing is banking on to spread its influence in more subtle ways.

These goals contrasted with the more contentious concerns that Washington wanted to address, especially the tensions with North Korea, growing trade problems and the stubborn issue of human rights.

These issues could have made the trip much rockier than it was, especially since China today is more powerful than it was at the time of past visits.

“China and the United States both had some doubts about the other in 2010, but this trip has successfully cleared people’s minds,” said Yuan Peng of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing. “The Chinese media lavished attention on this trip.”

The media’s interest was on full display on Thursday, when the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, People’s Daily, did not appear as usual in the morning. In years past that would have been an epochal event, perhaps signaling an internal struggle over the wording of an editorial or the placing of a picture, so carefully written and designed is the party mouthpiece.

Thursday’s delay was less mysterious, but did reflect the visit’s vital importance to Beijing. Leaders had held the presses until the end of the state dinner on Wednesday night to get in Mr. Hu’s great moment. Given the 13-hour time difference between Washington and Beijing, that meant the Thursday paper went to press only late Thursday morning in Beijing. Other top party newspaper followed suit.

Most accounts were fairly factual, detailed and dull. One article in People’s Daily was titled “To Open a New Chapter in the Sino-U.S. Cooperative Partnership.” When the American concerns were addressed in the media, the intention of the reports was to rebut those concerns by contending, for example, that China is a fair trader and doing its bit for the world economy by growing.

The one exception could have been human rights but it was deftly dodged. On Wednesday, two Western reporters asked Mr. Hu about human rights. But he was well-prepared and had a stock answer at hand: China values human rights but is a big, developing country and still needs to improve. The answer echoed the country’s official position paper on human rights and was not given much prominence in China. The news conference was not broadcast live on Chinese television, but a video recording is available on major Chinese Web sites, like tudou.com.

“Hu’s comments reflect his nonconfrontational political style,” said Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing-based political analyst. “He’s simply not going to get into a public debate with Obama on human rights, for he sees that as creating a poor atmosphere for other issues that Beijing deems more important to stabilizing the relationship.”

There are no major polls that track public opinion on matters like this, leaving observers to rely on extremely selective sources, like Internet chat rooms or casual chats with people on the street.

Most comments in chat rooms called the trip a success. One bellicose commentator in a military affairs chat room said the question about human rights was meant as a “provocation” to Mr. Hu because it was brought up only to embarrass him.

Zhang Jing contributed research.

A version of this article appears in print on January 22, 2011, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: From China’s Perspective, Relief After a Successful Trip. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe